ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty ImagesPaul Lawrie shot a 3-under 73 in the first round of the Masters.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Paul Lawrie rolled his eyes when he was introduced after his round at Augusta National Thursday as Paul LOU-ree, not Paul LAW-rie. But even he had to understand why his name was butchered.

It’s been a while since anyone here had to say it.

But there it was Thursday, near the top of the leaderboard, and in his first Masters appearance since 2004. Lawrie eagled both of the par 5s on the back nine — chipping in on the 15th to do so — for a 3-under 69 that made him the most unlikely name in contention.

You might remember Lawrie as the man who benefited from arguably the greatest choke in golf history, when Jean van de Velde couldn’t hold onto a three-stroke lead on the final hole at the 1999 British Open.

Lawrie, who is Scottish, trailed by 10 when the final round started and walked away with the improbable Claret Jug at Carnoustie. It was the shining moment of his golf career, and for years, he held the distinction as the most recent European to win a major.

But he’s spent the last 13 years listening to people insist van de Velde lost it, not that he won it. Lawrie admits it bothered him — he did, after all, win a three-man playoff with van de Velde and Justin Leonard.

“I tried to be fair, for a wee while, to change the way that people saw it,” Lawrie said, “and I failed miserably, to be honest.

“It doesn’t bother me anymore. I just sort of do what I do and get on with it. If people want to give me respect for what happened, then they can. And if they don’t, then it doesn’t bother me anymore.”

Lawrie went winless from August 2002 until finally breaking through twice in the last 15 months. But his victory at the Qatar masters this March was bittersweet: It came after the loss of his swing coach and mentor, Adam Hunter, who lost a two-year battle with leukemia in October. He was 48.

“Obviously, he would have been walking around and he would have been taking notes,” Lawrie said following his round. “We would have obviously gone through it in the house at night. But obviously we can’t do that anymore. But I think of him every day.”

Lawrie credits his turnaround to a change in approach. Gone are the days when he’d spend hour after hour trying to fix his swing on the range; instead, he spends more time focused on his short game.

“I used to hit a lot of balls. I would hit 500, 600, 700 a day,” he said. “That’s not the way you are going to be a better player. The way to be a better player is to spend three hours a day chipping and putting, then working on the mental side at night. I’ve been doing a lot of that, so it is much better.”

The Scot also believes that finally coming to grips with the fact that his one major victory will always be associated with that major collapse has helped his mental focus.

He is 43 now, and, he believes, a more mature player.

Can all that lead to a second stunner in a major?

“I am not thinking about winning at all at the moment,” he said. “Obviously I’ve had a good day but I know there is a long way to go. I am not thinking about Sunday at all — that’s a long way off.”